Tuesday, 6 September 2011

Prince Of Power, King Amongst Comic-books...

I've been catching up on all of Marvel's Heroic Age stuff recently, it's been pretty good stuff all in all, then I read Prince of Power #3 and was blown away. Prince of Power #3is just straight-up awesome comic-books people. It's got everything your average YouAreComic reader could possibly want. It's got crazy mythology of every possible stripe, it's got Marvel's new polished streamlined Thor (who hasn't been this fantastic since he was storming the gates of Hel under the pen of Walt Simonson), it's got the always badass Amadeus Cho and it's got boatloads of batshit comic-book wackiness.

And the wackiness kicks in straight away on page 1. Amadeus and Thor are throwing down with a big, crazy, sword-wielding Egyptian cat goddess in the middle of the Egyptian Underworld:

Now as any regular reader of the trusty YAC will know no-one appreciates a Viking God, Egyptian cat chick and mortal super-genius throwdown more than myself but when it comes to Amadeus Cho I'd rather see him solve his Egyptian cat-people problems with his super-intellect and not his big honking magical mace.

As blasphemous as it is to say such a thing here at the YAC, clearly the great Greg Pak and the always fantastic Fred Van Lente agree. Rather than pummelling kitty into litter with some old-fashioned Uru justice they've got Amadeus coming up with a ingenious escape plan using his encylopedic knowledge of Egyptian mythology:

That's using yer noodle man. However this begins what becomes something of pattern in this issue. This awesome escape is immediately outdone on the very next page. Behold the undeniable awesomeness of...

...a crazy cat lady armed with a saracen sword chasing us down the River Nile on a freaking humungous white snake. Folks - that shit is so crazy that somewhere David Coverdale is having nightmares!

In the middle of the insane giant white snake-funeral barge high speed chase Van Lente and Pak decide to cut away from the action to catch up on what's going on with Amadeus' ex-girlfriend Delphyne Gorgon....who by the way is in fact a smoking hot Medusa-looking chick.

I know what you're thinking, what possible reason could there be to cut away from a cat-goddess on a giant white snake chasing a Norse God riding on a boat with the sun's coffin down a magic river?

Well how about a page of Delphyne engaging in an 80s movie style 'getting ready for action' montage that includes holstering her twin machine pistols and tying back her snaky locks with a 'death scrunchie':

That my friends is pure goofy comic-book gold!

Of course the patented Van Lente & Pak 'top that batshit crazy thing you jut saw on the very next page' pattern strikes again at this point. I mean putting a death scrunchie in your snaky locks is pretty sweet, but is it better than this?

Unlike Delphyne, Amadeus likes to rely on his brains instead of his brawn. So when the crazy cat Cleopatra gets the drop on Thor, Amadeus steps in and saves the day with a battle tactic only the most advanced brain in the world could come up with.

He slips the sword-wielding, snake-riding, feline guardian on the Egyptian underworld a roofie:

Yeah, so apparently when you slip Egyptian gods a mickey they go from sword swingin', evil-seein' engines of destruction to cutesy, wutesy, lovey-dovey, Puss-In-Boots-from-Shrek looking kitten chicks who can be easily defeated with an irrestible ball of yarn.